I had the opposite experience. I was once hired to an entry-level position where the hiring manager declared, "You will be bored with this job within three months. But it's a foot in the door." And she was right on both counts.

This seems like a pretty foolish decision on the part of the police department, though. Are patrols all they do? Don't they have detectives, tech specialists, and lab geeks? Wouldn't it make sense to grow some of those from within?